The Dance of the Feathers
by Storyteller Ann
Summary: Bai Yu An is an albino who transfers to XXX University. For some reason, all girls squee at the sight of him, and people seem to think he is some sort of 'prince'...
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is a random stuff I've been wanting to write for quite a while. I was having a writer's block with 'Zero Distance Prayers' and decided to take this out of my mind. Tell me if you like it and want to see more of it. Anyway, the next chapter of ZDP is almost done.**

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**The Dance of the Feathers**

* * *

_My name is Bai Yu An, and I am an albino, the sort with white hair, really pale skin and even red eyes. I also have lots of health issues, and my father died when I was really young._

_I'm not telling it to you so that you'll pitty me. It's just to explain that, because of my father's death and my poor health condition, my mother got really over-protective, and that's why I never had much of a social life. In fact, I barely got near any computers or TV, because she was afraid the eletro-magnetic waves would hurt my brain and make me have cancer. When I was sixteen she even made me live inside a plastic bubble, but I put an end to that by throwing a tantrum. (I am not proud to admit, but when you're the only child of a over-protective mother... you do learn how to throw a tantrum)._

_Now I am 20, and I finally convinced my mom that I could actually live alone, so I transferred from the local university to XXX University – the one with the best literature major in the country._

_I entered the bus when it was still empty, and as it circled the nearby towns people started to occupy the other seats around me. When it was almost full, a girl entered without even lifting her eyes from the book she was reading and sat just beside me. After that, I guess I must have fallen asleep..._

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Chapter 1

* * *

Bai Yu An woke up to find a girl startlingly close to him.

Perhaps, from an outsider point of view, that sentence wasn't strictly true, but Yu An wasn't used to have people close to him in any circunstamces, so a girl sitting beside him and leaning in his direction was indeed very close. She was rather cute, he decided. She had brown hair, freckles, and wore glasses.

"I can't believe it's you." She said in an excited whisper.

"Huh?"

"Prince! Nice to meet you, I am a huge fan of yours, I..." She kept whispering, perhaps because most people in the bus were napping, perhaps because she didn't want competition for his attention.

"Er, I don't know what are you talking about."

"Don't worry, Prince, I won't tell anybody. I know it must be terrible to you being targeted by all those reporters and fangirls."

"Sorry, but... I am no prince."

The girl smiled knowingly at him.

"Okay, since you say so... Then I'll go back reading. But can you sign my notebook?" She produced the said notebook and a pen as she talked.

Realizing he wasn't quite able to refuse, Yu An took the pen. Perhaps, Yu An thought, the girl had some serious mental illness. It was better to leave her be.

"So, what do you want me to write?"

"Just 'To my fan Xiao Ai, always yours, Prince'. I hope that is not much?"

"Not at all." He tried not to sound unsure while he wrote the words down. "Here."

"Thanks. I'll stop bothering you now." And keeping to her promise she opened her book again, even though she shot a glance at him every now and then and giggled.

* * *

Finally arriving at XXX City's Bus Terminal, Bai Yu An retrieved his luggage and sat to recover his breath. His luggage wasn't particularly heavy, but his ashma wouldn't cooperate, so the small effort of lifting it and carrying it to the taxi stand was enough to leave Yu An breathless.

During the process, he was pretty sure a couple of girls had pointed to him and started to talk conspiratorially among themselves, but they had to enter their buses and didn't approach him. This fact was compensated as soon as he put his luggage down. Three girls matterialized in front of him.

"Wow, I can't believe I'm actually meeting Prince!"

"I know! My legs are shaking! Hi, Prince!"

"Hi, Prince! You're incredible, we love you!"

"Err... Look, I'm not a prince, you know..." He tried to explain, without much success.

"I have all the CD's from Infinite Band!"

"I started playing Second Life because of you!"

"I'm moving my character to Infinite City!"

Yu An had never heard about Second Life, but he wasn't totally slow in the uptaking.

"So, this Prince you've been talking about... He's not really a prince, only some sort of celebrity."

"Ha ha, you don't need to pretend you don't know about him, silly! But will you come with us and have a coffee while we wait for our bus?"

The girl who spoke looked normal enough, but her two friends were alredy looking at him like... like... like hungry wolves spotting deer. Under that gaze, Yu An stepped back, which was a mistake. The girls closed in. Desperate, he grabbed his luggage, wondering if he could startle them by swinging it and create an opening through which he could escape.

Suddenly, with a screeching noise, a taxi stopped beside him. The door flung open and a hand pulled Yu An and his luggage inside.

* * *

"Are you okay, lad?" A middle-aged taxi driver asked Yu An as he regained his breath.

"Good grief... yes. Thanks to you. I thought they were going to..." the boy stopped himself from saying "eat", "... do something very unpleasant to me."

The driver sighed.

"That is no proper behaviour. I play Second Life too, you know."

"Second Life?"

"Yes. I've seen how they keep chasing you there. Shameless. Even a celebrity like you should be able to come and go as you please, if you ask me."

So, Yu An though, he was still being mistaken for that Prince. And what was this Second Life? He didn't have time to ask this, because the driver was still talking.

"You know, I have a daughter. A cute little thing, barely sixteen. She's such a great fan of yours... but not the murderous type like those three we left at the terminal. Tomorrow is her birthday, and I just bought her a CD from Infinite Band. And I was wondering... could you sign it? And perhaps, if it's not asking to much, take a picture with me, so she'll believe I actually met you?"

Yu An blinked.

"Of course! Here, give me the CD. What is her name again?"

* * *

The driver tried to prevent Yu An from paying, but he wasn't going to have any of that.

"Even real princes and celebrities have to follow the laws." He said firmly. "And I am neither. Thanks for your help back then."

The taxi driver smiled at what he understood as a humble atitude and, after helping Yu An to carry his luggage upstairs, went away feeling very satisfied. Prince was indeed a nice guy! He was glad his daughter admired such a nice guy, instead of a troublesome rock star who did drugs.

Yu An watched him go with a mix of acomplishment and unneasiness. Just who was this Prince he was already becoming good in impersonating?


	2. Chapter 2

**So, thanks for the reviews. When I posted chapter one, I already had 2/3 of this ready, so when it seemed that you guys were interested, I only finished writing. And I'm almost done with the next chapter for Zero Distance Prayers, so watch out for it.**

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Chapter 2

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Bai Yu An banged shut the infirmary door and leaned heavily against it. This time he had been chased _all around the campus_, and it had at least three flights of stairs. When he finally found the nurse's office to hand his medical report, he was so breathless that he was seeing black dots and he had trouble fumbling in his pockets for his inhaler.

A tall figure crouched next to him, took his inhaler from his shaking hands and helped him to take a deep breath. The black dots disappeared and Yu An was finally able to see the face of Li Tian Lang, the school's doctor.

"Thanks, Doc."

Tiang Lang helped him up with a slightly bewildered look.

"Here. I had to give you these papers, they're reports from my doctor back home."

Taking the papers from the young man's hand, Tian Lang was suddenly all business.

"You seem like you've got a pretty delicate condition, student Bai Yu An. You shouldn't be running around like this. If you don't want to get late to your classes, come early to the university, but don't go overexerting yourself."

"I wasn't running because I was going to be late!" Yu An protested, his voice almost a shriek. "I was running from those crazy fangirls!"

"You have fangirls?" Again he seemed bewildered.

"Yes! I mean! No! They're fans of this guy called Prince, but I just seem to look like him and... what on earth is this Second Life everyone keeps talking about?"

Tiang Lang looked at him in utter astonishment.

"You don't know about Second Life?"

Yu An crossed his arms and looked away, feeling annoyed at his own ignorance.

"I understand it's some sort of game. A computer game. But back home my mom wouldn't let me use the computer for more than ten minutes, so I never really got to play anything."

Tiang Lang looked briefly at Yu An's medical report before saying knowingly. "I see."

"Second Life is a virtual reality MMO RPG. To play it, you put on a gaming helmet and lie down, so it's great for playing when you're going to sleep. Before Second Life, most people played The World or Life, which had a realism of 85%. When Second Life was created, with a realism of 99%, most people migrated there."

_A realism of 99%..._ Yu An was taken aback. Depending on which part was the 1% that didn't feel real, a person could completely get lost in this game. Perhaps this was part of the reason why this Prince fangirls were so... intense. No, perhaps that was not the word. Desperate, then. They couldn't help it if their virtual idol seemed so real.

"And who is this Prince?" He asked. To his surprise, the doctor looked far away, then chuckled.

"That is a very good question. Let's just say Prince is a very good-looking player, he is known as Blood Elf and also has a band. I guess his popularity accounts from that."

"Wow, a band? This really seems cool. But what I don't understand is why people keep taking me for him."

"You look like him." Tian Lang blurted. "White hair, red eyes, and..." He examined the student's face attentively. "...even the shape of your faces hold some resemblance."

"So Prince is also an albino?" Yu An asked innocently.

"What? No! In Second Life one can change their appearance at will."

* * *

_Changing one's appearance at will..._ between regaining his breath and talking to Doctor Li, Bai Yu An missed his first class completely. He looked absent-mindedly at his schedule. Next was "History of Literature – Professor Min Gui Wen, PhD". This Second Life thing looked nice. Perhaps after he caught up with the assignments of this new university, he wanted to try playing it.

When he got to class, people were entering, and the teacher seemed to be already inside. Professor Ming looked so young! He probably was very intelligent, to have a PhD at such young age, Yu An thought. He observed people sitting on their usual places, so he was the last to enter. And when he did...

"Prince!"

"Look, it's Prince!"

"Bishie!"

"I can't believe it's Prince!"

Half the class had got up and was heading towards him. At this moment, the professor – who had been frozen on the spot with a stiff expression – placed himself between Yu An and Prince's fans.

"You won't lay your hands on him." There was something icy about his tone that made all the students go back to their seats. Yu An wished he could have seen the teaher's expression while he said those words. Then Professor Min turned to him, his expression soft, yet slightly... frightened? Nah, it must not be that. Yu An thought he was imagining things.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, thanks, Professor Min." Yu An thanked wholeheartedly. For some reason the teacher seemed at loss, so he decided to introduce himself. "Bai Yu An, transfer student from ZZZ University. Please take care of me."

Professor Min's mouth moved wordlessly in what seemed like "I will", but aloud he said. "Be welcome to our university, student Bai Yu An. You can take that seat around there." He gestured vaguely to a place near Jing, Yun, and the Feng twins. These four, at least, didn't look like they were about to assault him, but they also looked at him quizzically.

Yu An thought about introducing himself, but it would feel stupid because he had just done so. So he scrambled his brains in search for a subject. The words of Doctor Li Tian Lang popped up in his mind.

"Hmm... So... do you guys play Second Life?"

The brown-haired boy opened his mouth, but the blond girl elbowed him significantly and answered.

"I am Lu Jing, nice to meet you. In Second Life my class is Exorcist, race Human."

"I am Gu Yun Fei. Class, Barrier Master, race Human."

"Feng Yang Ming. Human, Warrior."

"Feng Lang..." The black-haired girls answered hesitantly. Then, making up her mind. "Human, Mage."

"Bai Yu An" the transfer student caught himself saying, against his own self warnings. "And I actually don't play Second Life."

Feng Yang Ming, Lu Jin, Feng Lan and Gu Yun Fei stared at him. They blinked. They spoke all at the same time.

"Seriously?!"

That was so loud it brought the class attention massively over them. Professor Min hesitated for a second, then told them to be quiet and pay attention to the class.

* * *

_But, seriously, why not?_

Bai Yu An didn't miss the whispering and exchanging of notes among the four friends before this rather crumpled note was dropped over his desk. They were probably deciding among themselves what to ask first.

Trying to make the most of it, he thought a little before scribbling.

_My mother didn't let me anywhere near computers._

_After class I'll go buy my first one._

_I could use some help._

He wondered who exactly had dropped the note over his desk, so he could give the reply, but Yun Fei just took the note from his hand, read it, then wrote ferociously, resulting in a messy handwrite.

_Then Yang Ming is your man._

And before he could even think of a reply, Yun poked Yang Ming and gave him the note. After reading, Yang Ming nodded at Yu An and added his own words to the already crowded small piece of paper.

_I know a place. Meet at 5 in cafeteria._

* * *

After that, classes were as uneventful as the first day of a transfer student can be uneventful. People stared, said "Prince!" in hushed voices, and the teachers gave him assignments to make up for those he'd missed. He got lost once or twice, but people – especially girls – were all very willing to help.

At five, he went to the cafeteria and, since Yang Ming wasn't anywhere to be seen, proceeded to apply his sun block.

"What are you doing?" The voice of Yang Ming drifted from across the empty cafeteria.

"Sun block."

"Yeah, I can see that, but why?"

Yu An said, with a most innocent face.

"Yang Ming, I don't know if you realized, but I am an albino."

Yang Ming looked as if he was about to say "Of course I realized that!", but Yu An didn't let him.

"And, without the protection of melanin in my skin, even the weak sunlight of the late afternoon can get me badly sunburnt."

Feng Yang Ming blinked and looked pensive. After some time, he mused.

"It must be thought, being a _real_ albino..."

And off they went to the computer shop.


End file.
